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The hungry cat eats the fish, even if the fish is an
interesting biological specimen.
Photo © Sophy Kozlova | Dreamstime.com.
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When a hungry cat sees a fish, the hungry cat eats the fish.
This is true even if the cat is on a ship on an Antarctic research expedition
and the fish is a just-discovered species previously unknown to science.
We know this because of a certain incident that occurred
back in 1842 (February 21, to be exact). Sir James Clark Ross (for whom the
Ross Ice Shelf is named), aboard HMS Erebus,
was leading an Antarctic expedition to collect biological samples and attempt to
reach the south magnetic pole. The expedition included a second ship, HMS Terror, commanded by Francis Crozier.
Our
incident took place on the Terror
during a particularly nasty gale, with temperatures at 19 degrees and waves crashing
over the ship’s bow and freezing on the decks and rigging. A heavy coating of
ice is not a nice thing to have on a ship, so the men were busily chopping ice
from the bow when “a small fish was found in the mass; it must have been dashed
against the ship, and instantly frozen fast” (Ross, p. 198).
Intending to preserve the unusual fish, the ship’s surgeon/naturalist
saw that it was carefully removed from the ice, measured and sketched, but
before he could get to the preserving part, the fish “was unfortunately seized
upon and devoured by a cat” (Ross, p. 198). The sketch was not detailed enough
to allow scientists to classify the fish, but it did seem to be of a new species.
Presumably the cat did not care what species the fish was; the cat only cared
that it was edible.
The name of this particular cat is not known. We do know
that he or she was the hardy sort of feline willing to venture onto a ship’s
deck during an icy gale. Also, the cat liked seafood.
Source
Sir James Clark Ross, A
Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern Antarctic Regions During the
Years 1839–43, vol. 2. London: John Murray, 1847. Available on GoogleBooks.
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